I am publishing a book and one of the chapters is on Devotional. I have long known Meera and have a close association with her. Please see this passage on Meera from my book ========================================= Meera Bai Meera Bai epitomizes Bhakti (devotion). Her unwavering love for her Krishna was the most beautiful. Even Krishna would helplessly be drawn to her. Her conversations with Krishna poured out as poetry, love songs for the divine (bhajans). For a devotee, all love songs are bhajans (devotion songs), and all bhajans are love songs. Hers are remembered even today. She did not want to get married but was married to a Rajasthani Mewar prince, Bhoj Raj, when she was thirteen. She was not interested in married life. For her, no one existed except Krishna. Her husband was understanding, and he built a temple for Meera where she could worship her Krishna. He died in war a few years after they married, when Meera was only sixteen. Meera's father-in-law also liked Meera, and protected her from the other family members' insults. She must have been around nineteen when her father-in-law also died. Meera's older brother-in-law and other in-laws were very unjust to Meera and tortured her. She was also a rebel and an unconventional woman. She never let go of her devotion for Krishna, no matter how much anyone tried. In the bleakest time of her life, when her in-laws rebuked her and her own family didn't want her back, she sang the bhajan, "Mere to Giridhar Gopal dusaro na koi"—only Giridhar Gopal is truly my own and no other.
I don't know why her life was full of so much misery. Finally, when she was about twenty-one, she decided to leave her in-laws. One night, she left the fort of Chittaur with deep pain in her heart, mourning, "Why don't they understand that I love Him so much?" For many days, hungry and thirsty, she traveled through the desert. She spent some time in the birth town of Krishna, Mathura, and Vrindavan. She had always wanted to find a Guru and gain knowledge, but Saint Chaitanya's disciple in Mathura refused to initiate her into meditation, saying that she was a woman. To him she said, "I thought the only male in this universe is Krishna, the rest all female," meaning there is only one consciousness, Krishna, and the rest is all matter. She then went to Varanasi and was initiated as a disciple by Saint Tulsidas. It was after this she sang, "Payoji maine Naam ratan dhan payo. Vastu amolik di mere Sat Guru, kiripa kar apanayo." "Naam" is when a Guru initiates a disciple. She finally went to Dwarka in Gujarat, which was the capital city of Krishna's kingdom. Sometime later, her youngest brother-in-law, Udai, built a new capital, Udaipur, with beautiful palaces, and he wanted Meera Bai to come back. He sent a few people to Dwarka to convince her. She was happy in Dwarka and didn't want to go back. One night she entered the Dwarka Deesh temple, and in her supreme glory, her single-minded devotion for Krishna and intense longing to unite with him, she did, and all that was there was light. When the priests went in to look for her, all they found were her garments. She left when she was around fifty. ==================================
I am publishing a book and one of the chapters is on Devotional. I have long known Meera and have a close association with her. Please see this passage on Meera from my book
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Meera Bai
Meera Bai epitomizes Bhakti (devotion). Her unwavering love for her Krishna was the most beautiful. Even Krishna would helplessly be drawn to her. Her conversations with Krishna poured out as poetry, love songs for the divine (bhajans). For a devotee, all love songs are bhajans (devotion songs), and all bhajans are love songs. Hers are remembered even today. She did not want to get married but was married to a Rajasthani Mewar prince, Bhoj Raj, when she was thirteen. She was not interested in married life. For her, no one existed except Krishna. Her husband was understanding, and he built a temple for Meera where she could worship her Krishna. He died in war a few years after they married, when Meera was only sixteen. Meera's father-in-law also liked Meera, and protected her from the other family members' insults. She must have been around nineteen when her father-in-law also died. Meera's older brother-in-law and other in-laws were very unjust to Meera and tortured her. She was also a rebel and an unconventional woman. She never let go of her devotion for Krishna, no matter how much anyone tried. In the bleakest time of her life, when her in-laws rebuked her and her own family didn't want her back, she sang the bhajan, "Mere to Giridhar Gopal dusaro na koi"—only Giridhar Gopal is truly my own and no other.
I don't know why her life was full of so much misery. Finally, when she was about twenty-one, she decided to leave her in-laws. One night, she left the fort of Chittaur with deep pain in her heart, mourning, "Why don't they understand that I love Him so much?" For many days, hungry and thirsty, she traveled through the desert. She spent some time in the birth town of Krishna, Mathura, and Vrindavan. She had always wanted to find a Guru and gain knowledge, but Saint Chaitanya's disciple in Mathura refused to initiate her into meditation, saying that she was a woman. To him she said, "I thought the only male in this universe is Krishna, the rest all female," meaning there is only one consciousness, Krishna, and the rest is all matter. She then went to Varanasi and was initiated as a disciple by Saint Tulsidas. It was after this she sang, "Payoji maine Naam ratan dhan payo. Vastu amolik di mere Sat Guru, kiripa kar apanayo." "Naam" is when a Guru initiates a disciple.
She finally went to Dwarka in Gujarat, which was the capital city of Krishna's kingdom. Sometime later, her youngest brother-in-law, Udai, built a new capital, Udaipur, with beautiful palaces, and he wanted Meera Bai to come back. He sent a few people to Dwarka to convince her. She was happy in Dwarka and didn't want to go back. One night she entered the Dwarka Deesh temple, and in her supreme glory, her single-minded devotion for Krishna and intense longing to unite with him, she did, and all that was there was light. When the priests went in to look for her, all they found were her garments. She left when she was around fifty.
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